Idaho Meth Project Expands Focus And Changes Its Name

The Idaho Prevention Project will be the umbrella organization for the Idaho Meth Project and Truth 208, each of which will have its own web site.

screengrab truth208.org

The Idaho Meth Project has been warning about the dangers of methamphetamine through graphic advertising and outreach to teens since 2008. Now, the pet project of Idaho’s governor and first lady - Butch and Lori Otter - has changed its name and its focus.

The re-christened “Idaho Prevention Project” will continue its anti-meth message using the old name, but director Adrean Cavener says it will have a similar campaign called Truth 208 aimed at abuse of legal drugs like prescription opiates .

“We believe what we’re really great at is telling teens a candid, honest truth about drugs,” Cavener says. “When we saw the epidemic that is here around opiate abuse, stimulants, over-the-counter medicines, etcetera, we felt that we really have a place in there telling teens exactly where that roads leads them.”

Cavener says prescription drug abuse in Idaho has grown to the point where it’s at least as big a problem as meth. The Idaho Prevention Project has already begun its Truth 208 campaign in a small way but will ramp that up with statewide advertising this summer.

There’s a story you hear in small towns and big cities all over the country. It goes like this: a lot of people get addicted to prescription opioid pain killers like oxycodone. When they can’t get those anymore they turn to heroin because the experience is similar and heroin is cheaper and easier to get. Much of the United States is now experiencing what is widely being called a heroin epidemic.

In Idaho we have the first part of that story. Walter Bogucki is an inpatient counselor at Port of Hope, a drug treatment center in Nampa.